Chicken Salad

What are your favorite picnic foods? I seem to end up favoring chicken salad as one of the items on our picnic list. Our latest picnic also included a fabulous corn and tomato salad with basil vinaigrette.

We also enjoy grapes and other fresh fruit, cut up for easy serving, a selection of cheeses and crackers and a baguette. Perfect desserts for picnics include brownies, cookies, or lemon bars.

The latest chicken salad was a big hit and is captured in the recipe below:
Chicken Salad with Toasted Pecans and Grapes
4 organic skinless, boneless chicken breasts, grilled
1 cup toasted, chopped pecans
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 roasted red bell pepper, skinned and chopped
2 cups seedless grapes, halved
1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tarragon, finely chopped
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper

Toss together all ingredients and chill. Serve with fresh baguette.

Grilled Corn and Tomato Salad
5 ears corn, grilled and husked (we soak the corn in water and grill in the husk, then husk and put back on the grill for a bit of browning)
1 1/2 cups red, orange and yellow heirloom cherry tomatoes
1/2 finely chopped jalapeña

Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup packed basil leaves
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
2 teaspoons country Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons white truffle honey
3 tablespoons olive oil

Prepare the vinaigrette in food processor, processing all ingredients except olive oil until the basil is finely chopped. Slowly add the olive oil through the feed tube.

Mix all ingredients together and toss with vinaigrette. Chill until ready to eat.